What is it about the human spirit that lauds the difficult? We celebrate our war heroes with medals, hoist trophies upon our champions, and marvel at earth's highest mountains as something to be climbed and conquered. Intuitively we sense that everything worth doing must be hard. So it is with love. Like the feats of heroes, champions, and death-defying climbers, a loving relationship cannot be manufactured nor faked. This is what separates the five wise virgins from the five foolish virgins in our Gospel reading today (Matthew 25:1-13). The oil which ignites their lamps as they await the bridegroom is a metaphor for hard-fought love for Christ that the authentic Christian life cultivates when lived to the full. This love of God determines our entry into Heaven. No counterfeit Christians shall pass.